When the Rev. Edward A. Pipala, a Catholic school teacherin Staten Island, appeared at the offices of the New YorkArchdiocese at 5:45 one morning in 1977, he was nervous andscared. The mother of a teenage student had accused him ofa sexual encounter with her son.

Father Pipala met with the archdiocese's chancellor, alongtime friend, and acknowledged the incident.

"I think I need some help," he told the chancellor,according to a deposition he made later.

The archdiocese decided to handle the case informally,without reporting the abuse to the police. Instead, achurch official ordered Father Pipala to begin therapy witha psychologist.

He was sent to a parish in Westchester County run by apastor known as a stern taskmaster. The archdiocesepromised the teenage boy's family that Father Pipala "wouldnot work with children," an internal archdiocese memoshows.

Over the next 15 years, the archdiocese abandoned itspromise, failed to follow through on his therapy andallowed the priest to benefit from friendships withinfluential peers, according to interviews and church andcourt records.

As a result, Father Pipala served in two parishes runningyouth groups, and eventually became pastor at a third, inGoshen, N.Y. During that time, he molested as many as 50boys, law enforcement officials said, initiating many ofthem into a fraternity he called the Hole.

The case came to light in 1993, devastating families andhanding the archdiocese one of the most embarrassing andpublicized cases of clergy sexual misconduct in theAmerican Catholic Church. Father Pipala served seven yearsin prison and was removed from the priesthood.

Details of the abuse became widely known, but thearchdiocese's handling of the case, spelled out in churchfiles and sworn depositions by church officials and FatherPipala, was largely kept from public view until now.

On Wednesday, amid the latest nationwide scandal over thesexual abuse of minors by priests, the archdioceseannounced new guidelines for dealing with the problem.

They require the establishment of a paper trail, a formalinvestigation by church officials and a decision by a panelof lay and clergy experts on whether to alert lawenforcement.

No one knows whether such rules would have stopped a serialmolester like Father Pipala, who also proved adept atmanipulating the system. But an examination of thearchdiocese's handling of his case shows what can happen inthe absence of both strict rules and vigilance at alllevels, from parish priests to high-ranking churchofficials.

In addressing Father Pipala's 1977 incident, the church didfollow prevailing psychiatric wisdom about pedophilia andrelated sexual conditions: that they were medical illnessesthat were curable or at least controllable, and did notnecessarily require the involvement of law enforcement.Details of how the church dealt with the priest in theensuing years, however, portray an archdiocese hobbled bygaps in communication within its own ranks.

In 1988, when Father Pipala was made pastor of St. John theEvangelist in Goshen, a church official who had handled the1977 abuse case even warned the archdiocese againstpromoting him.

"I would not have made Ed Pipala a pastor," the official,Msgr. Thomas P. Leonard, recalled telling one of hissuccessors as director of priest personnel, according to alegal deposition.

In an interview this week, Monsignor Leonard added that thearchdiocese should never have allowed him to work againwith children.

Through an acquaintance, Mr. Pipala, now 63, refused tocomment. "I think he sees it not only as a question ofmorals but as a question of sickness," said theacquaintance, the Rev. John Grange, a former classmate ofMr. Pipala's who is in occasional contact with him.

"He gets care," Father Grange said. "It relieves himsomewhat of the terrible guilt he feels. And he feelsterrible."

A spokesman for the archdiocese, Joseph Zwilling, said hehad no comment on the Pipala case, because those who madedecisions at the time were either dead or no longerofficials at the archdiocese, and because the man wasremoved from the priesthood after his release from prisonin July 2000. "We are not going to go through our old casesand rehash them in the media," Mr. Zwilling said.

Interviews with people who knew the former priest, internalarchdiocese records, his own correspondence with churchofficials and depositions in more than a dozen lawsuitsbrought by victims that were secretly settled by thearchdiocese, show how the priest was able to flourishdespite the 1977 incident and continuing questions abouthis conduct.

Throughout Father Pipala's career, church officials seemedunsure of just what to do with their fellow priest,singularly undistinguished as a student but regarded earlyon as a gifted leader of young people.

"He said he needed psychiatric help because of hishomosexuality," Monsignor Leonard said in his deposition.

But the church did not want to cast out one of its own, hesuggested.

"He has to have a place to stay; you give yourself over tothe church, you have to be cared for," Monsignor Leonardsaid.

After Father Pipala went to prison, he was visited byCardinal John J. O'Connor, who led the New York Archdiocesefrom 1984 until his death in 2000.

Father Pipala's road to the priesthood was not auspicious.He flunked out of Cathedral College, a Catholic preparatoryschool in Manhattan, in 1957, after teachers rated him"disagreeable" at times and without much hope forimprovement.

He went on to the seminary, though, and was ordained apriest in 1966.

By 1975, he was teaching at Moore Catholic High School inStaten Island.

Less than two years later, early in 1977, the womancomplained to an archdiocese official that Father Pipalahad molested her 14-year-old son, according to records.

She said her son had complained that while on an overnightouting, Father Pipala had slept in the same bed with himand touched his genitals. The boy, shaken, had pretended tobe asleep.

The archdiocese official suggested that the family confrontFather Pipala, which they did.

Father Pipala said in his deposition that he then presentedhimself to Bishop Joseph O'Keefe, the No. 2 official in thearchdiocese and a friend. In their morning meeting, FatherPipala did not admit to the touching, but said he hadbecome sexually aroused when embracing the boy, accordingto the deposition.

The matter was referred to Monsignor Leonard, thearchdiocese's personnel director. Monsignor Leonard said hesaw his responsibility as helping Father Pipala to contacta therapist who could help him.

"We went by what was possible at the time, and followedwhat the medical advice of the time suggested," saidMonsignor Leonard, 74, now pastor at Holy Trinity Church onWest 82nd Street.

Bishop O'Keefe terminated Father Pipala's assignment to theStaten Island school and transferred him to the Church ofSt. Joseph in Croton Falls, N.Y., where he was to workunder the supervision of a strict pastor, Daniel Brady, andnot be in contact with children.

Monsignor Leonard said he may not have explicitly toldFather Brady the details of the incident, adding that hefelt torn between Father Pipala's need for medicalconfidentiality, and his own obligation as a churchofficial.

"Where do you cross that line where you're trying to helpsomebody without ruining their reputation?" he asked.

Monsignor Leonard said he did implore Father Brady to besure that Father Pipala was not around children, and thathe got the treatment he needed. Monsignor Leonard soon lefthis personnel post and had no further involvement in thecase.

Over the next year, Father Pipala saw Richard D. Milone, apsychiatrist in Harrison, N.Y.

Dr. Milone declined comment on the case, citing patientconfidentiality. Dr. Milone confirmed that, at the time,pedophilia and related conditions were seen as reversible,a view that did not change until the mid-1980's.

Within six months of starting treatment, he began arelentless campaign to become a pastor. Writing toMonsignor Leonard, he said that his therapist "feels I ammore likely to function more efficiently as a pastor in asmall parish."

Monsignor Leonard said in his deposition that he tried todiscourage those ambitions. "When you say pastor," hewrote, "that adds another dimension that I am unable toanswer at this moment."

On June 6, 1977, Father Pipala wrote to then-MonsignorO'Keefe with a progress report, saying that his therapistfelt he was "doing very well" and blaming the incident onrepressed tensions and anger. He said he worried that theincident would be a stigma on his record.

In 1979, he appealed directly to Cardinal Terence Cooke fora pastorship, saying three years had passed since his"health problems" and that a doctor had given him a "cleanbill." He was rejected.

Two years later, after stressing his work with youngpeople, he won a job as associate pastor at the Church ofthe Sacred Heart in Monroe, N.Y., under a pastor he hadknown since early in his career.

Youth ProgramsA Teenage Club Has Initiations

In Monroe,Father Pipala settled into his job, coordinating the youthministry and working in drug and alcohol programs. Hislicense plate read, "Fred 66," a play on his nickname,Father Ed, and the year of his ordination.

He also assumed a darker role: founder and leader of a clubcalled the Hole, based in the church basement.

It had several dozen members - all teenage boys, some withstrained relations with parents, others from broken homes.The priest said in his deposition that he based the Hole onthe "philosophy of having someone who would be there allthe time, a place that one could go to share their thoughtsand feeling and not ending up in some bar talking to somestrange bartender."

Yet, he said he gave the boys beer and liquor and showedthem pornographic videos. Father Pipala created aninitiation ceremony in which the teenagers, sworn tosecrecy, joined him in masturbating into a red cloth, anact he would later compare to an ancient "tribal" ritual.Each boy was given a small square of the cloth, and aT-shirt with his number on the back.

By the time of his arrest in 1993, prosecutors said hisabuse had extended to oral and anal sex. They said dozensof minors were initiated into his club and that he molestedboys in rectories, at a Jersey Shore condominium and duringa vacation in Massachusetts.

Throughout his seven years in Monroe, Father Pipalacontinued to be frustrated in his attempts to win his ownparish, letters from his personnel file show.

But when he wrote archdiocese officials asking if therewere any doubts about his "health situation," they told himnot to worry.

"In response to your direct question whether you shouldpursue the pastorate - my direct answer is `yes,' " BishopO'Keefe wrote back on Feb. 25, 1985. "You have many yearsahead of you to continue a fruitful priesthood. Be patient.In time things will come together."

Another personnel director in 1986 went further. "Thefuture is bright with promise," said the Rev. Henry J.Mansell, now the bishop of Buffalo.

All along, the personnel file shows, Father Pipala toutedhis skill at working with young people. Finally, in July1988, Cardinal O'Connor appointed him a pastor of St. Johnthe Evangelist in Goshen.

It is unclear whether Cardinal O'Connor or his predecessor,Cardinal Cooke, knew about Father Pipala's history.

"I know that your dedication to the Lord and his Churchwill have a fruitful influence on the young people of St.John's," Cardinal O'Connor wrote.

The word that Father Pipala was going to lead his ownparish stunned Monsignor Leonard, the former personneldirector.

During a priest's gathering in New York a few weeks afterthe appointment, he bluntly told the personnel director whohad recommended the promotion, the Rev. Lawrence M.Connaughton, that it was a mistake.

"He said nothing," Monsignor Leonard recalled in hisdeposition.

In an interview, Monsignor Connaughton said he did notremember the conversation. He said the personnel boardcollectively came up with Father Pipala's name, and thatthere was no inkling of a problem.

"You can't help but feel badly," he said. "The communityseemed to think highly of him. Apparently he was able tofool a number of people for a considerable period of time."

Double LifeWhen Dedication Draws Questions

In Goshen, Father Pipala continued to live a double life,winning praise from some parishioners as an involved anddedicated priest while covertly molesting boys.

But some in the parish and archdiocese were questioning hisbehavior, and why he so often surrounded himself with youngboys, taking them to dinner and on overnight trips.

In 1989, for example, the parents of one boy who attendedJohn S. Burke Catholic High School in Goshen asked a summerpriest in the church whether it was appropriate for theirson to be around Father Pipala. The priest said he advisedthem that it was not. "I wasn't comfortable with the way heinteracted with children," said the priest, who spoke onthe condition of anonymity.

Word of the concern got back to Father Pipala. Another ofthe priests in Goshen who worked under him complained aboutthe parade of teenage boys through the rectory.

Father Pipala said in his deposition that he was questionedby Msgr. Edward D. O'Donnell, the archdiocese personneldirector at the time, about the complaint and assured himall was well.

Father Pipala said in the deposition that MonsignorO'Donnell had suggested that he check in with Dr. Milone,the psychiatrist in Harrison. "Just update your owncounseling situation," he said he was told.

In an interview, Monsignor O'Donnell said he was simplyresponding to a complaint about too many teenagers in therectory and did not ascribe sexual overtones to it. He saidhe did not remember being aware at the time of the 1977incident, but he recalled running across an ambiguousreport about it in Father Pipala's personnel file severalyears later.

In March 1992, Monsignor O'Donnell called to say that theparents of a Monroe student were complaining that FatherPipala had sexually abused their son. "He asked me if I, ifthat was true, and I said `yes,' " Father Pipala said.

Monsignor O'Donnell immediately removed Father Pipala fromGoshen, and within a month the priest was sent forlong-term treatment at St. Luke Institute, a psychiatrichospital in Suitland, Md.

But even there, records show, he was still writing to hisvictims. "Hi Bro," he wrote to one. "Life at St. Luke isinteresting. I could literally write a book." He signed it,"Love ya!, Fred."

It was not until early 1993 that the case became known tolaw enforcement authorities, after a victim approached theOrange County district attorney. That summer, Father Pipalapleaded guilty to state charges of sodomy and sexual abuseand federal counts of taking minors across state lines andmolesting them.

On April 15, 1994, as he was sentenced, Judge Pano Z.Patsalos of Orange County Court said that Father Pipala'ssuperiors had known about his problem for many years.

"Unfortunately, their manner of handling such abuse was tohide from it," he said, "by transferring you from onecommunity to another, thereby exposing you to new andgreater number of children for you to abuse, to violate,and to permanently injure."

But Father Pipala was not held to account for all of hisvictims. Prosecutors said only six were willing to comeforward and cooperate in the investigation.

And because the abuse dated back so far, victims were alsolimited in their ability to sue. Ultimately, about a dozenlawsuits were filed, which the archdiocese settled onconfidential terms, plaintiffs' lawyers said.

Some victims also declined to sue, said two lawyers, MarcD. Orloff and Barbara J. Strauss, who represented some ofthe victims. "Some of it may be fear, some of it may beresidual loyalty to the church, moral ambiguity about whatto do," Mr. Orloff said.

After the priest's arrest in 1993, Monsignor O'Donnell, thearchdiocese personnel director, got a call from the brotherof the boy molested years before at Moore High School, hisown records show.

In a note to the file, Monsignor O'Donnell said that thebrother asked why Father Pipala had been allowed tocontinue to work with children. The brother spoke of the"renewed anguish that he, his mother, and his brother havehad to endure."

I
agree that my access and use of the MaleSurvivor discussion forums and
chat room is subject to the terms of this Agreement. AND the sole
discretion of MaleSurvivor. I agree that my use of MaleSurvivor
resources are AT-WILL,
and that my posting privileges may be terminated at any time, and for
any reason by MaleSurvivor.